Borderlands: Unnatural selection

"Sounds like a plan for the future since I don't know anything about making guns, I know how to maintain them but I don't exactly have the stuff for that on me at the moment." I said with a shrug.

"Theres a box in that cabinet there, help yourself." the old man said pointing at a wooden cabinet next to the fireplace.

I stood up and walked over to it and opened it up. There like he said was a metal box that looked like the sort of thing shoes would come in.-

I grabbed it and walked back to the chair and got to work taking my gun apart so I could clean, polish, oil and perform general maintenance on the parts. Neither Clay nor the old man said a word as I did but merely watched even as the butler Baldrin returned with the tea and a cartridge looking thing that he gave to the old man. Once I was satisfied with my maintenance I put all the tools back where I got them and began reassembling my gun.

"Passable skill at maintenance, a few mistakes but it's clear that they were from inexperience." the old man commented gruffly but I just shrugged.

I never claimed to be an expert at it or anything like that just that I knew how to do it. It was part of the training that came with learning to use a gun but I didn't like using guns on earth so I never went beyond the basics of maintenance. The old man didn't say anything after that but took out a strange rectangular device with a large slot at the top that he popped the cartridge into and to my surprise a blue screen got projected from the device in front of his face.

"Hey what's that thing?" I asked Clay curiously.

"Echo 1 unit, standardized method of communication in the six galaxies. Used to store information and access the personal storage deck modules too." Clay explained calmly.

"Storage deck modules?" I asked confused.

"Keeps slippin my mind you don't know this stuff already. I told you about how the fast travel units digitized stuff right? Well this uses the same tech but to store items in a sort of personal digital backpack like that bag of yours though without size limits, like this." he explained before reaching into the breast area of his duster and pulling out a whole ass assault rifle that he then put back.

"How did you take that out without taking out the Echo first?" I asked infinitely curious about such useful tech.

"You only need to take out the unit itself when doing mass inventory, more than one item type deal. Not an egghead but I believe it was something to do with brainwaves, like mind reading but more vague." Clay said honestly.

It was at this point that the blue screen in front of the old man vanished and he looked at me.

"Story checks out, been cases like yours in the past but usually attached to experiments on the mind, sorry boy but it looks like them memories are gone for good." he said with what I can only describe as pity.

I shrugged "Not knowing common stuff is bugging me a bit but otherwise I'm no different than anyone else as far as I can see, at least up top here." I said tapping my forehead.

"Well said, don't you worry boy I'll get an education drilled into you before this is all over." the old man said seriously and I nodded.

"In that case I suppose I have something to come clean about, well two things actually. The first is that I actually know what this alien thing does, it's a house." I said honestly as I took out my house.

"A house? Whatcha mean?" Clay asked confused and the old man was not much different.

"It'd be easier to show rather than explain." I said as I stood up and pressed the button on the sphere.

Immediately it stuck in mid air even as I let go of it and began to twist and unfurl to form that oh so familiar black metallic archway with the button at the top and portal glowing in the center.

"Sweet mary! It's a vault!" the old man exclaimed in shock.

"I suppose there ARE similarities what with the portal and all. But if you'll follow me I'll explain what I mean by it being a house." I said calmly.

"Boy why in damnation would I ever get anywhere near that contraption!?" The old man demanded with a concerned look at the portal.

"Trust is earned, you give it and you'll get it. I believe you said earlier." I said with a grin.

"Cheeky brat! Usin my own words against me like that. Fine! Ain't nobody gonna say Montgomery Jakobs didn't live by his words!" the old man said fiercely and I chuckled before leisurely strolling into the portal.

A few moments later the old man and Clay stumbled into the entry way with cautious looks.

"Welcome to my home on the road, kinda barren at the moment I know but I plan to fix that over time." I said with my arms stretched widely in a dramatic fashion.

"Kinda underwhelming ain't it?" Clay ended up asking with a funny expression.

"You say that now but you'll be singing another tune after the tour. First up is the standard living amenities. Got this nifty thing here that every twenty four hours can create any type and portion of food you can imagine. Then theres the bathrooms and showers with running water of any temperature you can imagine all perfectly clean and pure." I said showing them around proudly.

"How'd you figure out what this stuff did if you just got it today?" Clay asked confused.

"Ah well when I first got this place it was in the ball form you saw before. It sort of bound itself to me after that and the place kinda gave me it's own form of a tour though not as easy to understand mind you. Still the vague understanding of how everything worked was more than enough for me to roughly figure out the rest." I explained honestly.

"Take it that means you won't be selling the place then?" the old man asked and I nodded though he didn't seem to find my answer unexpected.

I moved on after that and showed them the empty rooms and explained the ones with stuff in them.

"This rooms got the alien stuff in it including the vault key, That room has my biological treasures in it though so far just whats left of the vault monster and the head of a cool bug I found and liked. And this room here has all the guns I got from the chests in the vault." I said proudly showing of my stuff.

"Not a whole helluva lot is it? I thought the vaults were chock full of treasure what with the one on Promethea giving Atlas such a boost." Clay said looking disappointed.

"You're missin the truth even though it's starin you in the face, this place IS the treasure in the vault. Them guns were a bonus most like." the old man said and I was surprised he figured it out so easily.

"He's right you know, I'm definitely not the most well knowledgeable on this stuff but this place is a wonder worth killing to defend or take. Rich as I don't question he is I doubt even the old man here could part with enough money to equal the worth of this place." I said seriously and to my surprise the old man nodded in agreement.

I moved the tour on after that and showed them the flora and fauna rooms which the old man was especially interested in.

"Some plants practically need a deal with the devil to grow with how damn picky they are in requirements but if you can easily replicate those conditions here I might just pay you to grow me some." the old man said seriously when I asked about his interest in the flora growing and study room.

The fauna room was likened to the universes most elaborate zoo and I couldn't unhear that and now it was stuck with me. The crafting room on the otherhand made the old man mad with jealousy. Not that that was surprising considering what the creator thing was able to do. The old man flat out said that he'd pay me a fortune just to see Jakobs weapons made by the thing.

"A rather odd request but it shouldn't be too hard to do if you can get me the materials and a blueprint." I said honestly after he asked.

"It's not about the damn weapon boy, it's the manufacturing process! Our machines are precise but they still make mistakes, a crack in the metal, a slightly tilted bore. But if this thing can just shit out a finished product with no flaws at all we can learn exactly which parts we need to improve to increase the quality of future weapons across the board! It's a gods damn goldmine for quality and prototype testing!" the old man said more excited than I even thought possible.

I thought about it for a moment and couldn't really say that he was wrong. If my creator thing did in fact make perfect versions of each gun manufactured by the Jakobs company any changes in the guns could be spotted and removed from sales increasing the overall quality of the weapons sold. In addition to that if I created experimental weapons they could in theory test them and make changes to the blueprint which would in turn be added to the next iteration without actually having to make a new machine for just the prototype.-

"I can only use it once every four hours so I'll charge by the gun made if that's fine with you." I said with a shrug.

"By the gun!? You tryin to give me a raw deal boy!? Every ten guns sounds more like it." The old man said with clearly false outrage.

"Fine lets haggle then, two!"

"Eight!"

"Three!"

"Five and that's the lowest I'll go!" the old man said firmly.

I grinned though "Four and a bottle of the best gut rot I can think up." I said and the man blinked before barking out a laugh.

"Alright boy you've got a deal, lets see what a brat like you can come up with." he said holding his hand out for a shake that I returned.

"And that leaves us with the second to last and the final rooms though the former I can just explain. It's a training simulation room to practice combat, plan to abuse the hell outta it for the next year to sharpen my skills before I go to wherever it is I'm supposed to go at that time." I said honestly.

"What do you mean go somewhere? How do you know you are supposed to go somewhere?" Clay asked confused.

"I don't fucking know. I just know that in a year I will be going somewhere that I can't remember the name of and doing something that I also forgot. This amnesia is really such a pain." I said a little frustrated.

"And if you were ta miss this "trip" of yours?" the old man asked sternly.

I shrugged "Nothing good probably, I don't plan to fuck around and find out though so once that date hit's I'm going to be looking for whatever is supposed to get me there, assuming the next room doesn't already serve that function." I said seriously before showing them the final room, the teleporter room.

"Pandora!?" the old man exclaimed in shock after seeing the planet set as the only destination of the house.

"So that's where I'm supposed to go, the moment you said that name I knew instantly that was where I am supposed to be in a year. Creepy how this place already has it marked for teleportation." I said now having a name to go with that vague direction of where I'm going.

'That being must have either left that coordinate knowing I'd get this place or left this place just so I get to that coordinate, not sure which.' I thought with a twitch of my eyebrow.